NASA wants to send your ugly mug into space

Emma Woollacott, 8th June 2010

With only two more shuttle missions set to fly, your chances of getting to the International Space Station (ISS) are slim. But as a consolation prize, NASA is promising to send your photo instead.

At the Face in Space website, users can upload a headshot of themselves with their name, which will be taken to the ISS on one of the next two missions.

For some reason, unfortunately, the offer is only open to over-13s.

They'll be given a confirmation page with their 'flight information' - and woe betide anyone that lingers too long in the bar and keeps the staff waiting.

After the flight, they can access the website again to get their Flight Certificate - signed by the Mission Commander, no less.

Participants get to choose which of the missions will carry their picture. The first launch, of the Discovery shuttle, is due on September 16, and the second, of Endeavor, in November.

The project is designed to appeal to that little part of us all that wants to scratch our names on the bathroom wall. It's not quite the first of its kind: previous shuttle missions have carried people's signatures to the ISS, Saturn and Mars. But it's the first time photos have been used.